chatwithketch

Taking your baby home. What next?
Remember the baby book I mentioned earlier? Be sure not to forget it or you may pay dearly for it. I’ll share my story with you.
When I had my first baby, of course, I had a baby book and took loads of pictures and filled up the baby book. There was hardly any empty page. I had the first lock of hair clipped, I had the outline of the foot drawn, I had the first picture with her face all wrinkled up in there.
By the time I had my second baby, I was a bit more blasé…been there, done that, if you get what I mean So, the pictures were fewer, the moments captured less and events recorded, fewer too
With my last baby, it was absolutely horrible. I didn’t buy the baby book and could not, for the life of me, remember to take pictures of my baby. This really was a difficult time in my life, so perhaps, that’s a good excuse but guess what? When the day comes, that explanation will not suffice. And that day came!
Every so often, my daughters would bring out their baby books and we would reminisce about events from their childhood. At these times, my son would ask me about his own book and about anecdotes from his childhood too. This started off without incident and I managed to smooth over awkward moments until the time when this could no longer work. My son started asking pointed questions about his baby book, about events backed up by pictures etc. I could see the look of ‘I’m not quite sure she loves me. How come she made all this effort for my sisters and not for me?’ And so that settled it! I started the project with my second daughter. We brought out our big bag of pictures and got to work bringing out all my son’s pictures that ever existed. I then bought the biggest baby book that ever existed and we set to work pasting all the pictures therein. It was a labour of love and despite a couple of gaps…like trace of hands and feet at certain ages etc, it still looked amazing when we were done, even if I say so myself! So, don’t get yourself into this ‘mess,’ be armed with your baby book and make sure all those life events are well represented, starting with ‘baby’s first picture when we got home’ 😀

So, now that you’re home, if you live anywhere in Africa, be ready for the deluge of visitors. They all mean well but not all of them will observe the basic rules of hygiene needed to keep a baby safe. Imagine this scenario: an elderly woman hurrying back from the market to come to your house to see your new baby. She quickly makes a beeline for the baby cot in the corner of the room to pick up your baby with those ‘unwashed’ germy hands that have touched all sorts all day! How do you tell this kind-hearted ‘mama’ or ‘Iya Sikira’ that you’d want her to wash her hands or better still just leave the baby for now? And what about you, what’s right to do and what’s not? Let’s give you some pointers 😀

• As much as practicable, wash your hands before picking up your baby. This ensures that you’re not transferring germs from the outdoors or anywhere else you’re coming from the baby.

For more on what to do to to take care of your new bundle of joy, get details from the book, Just For The Health Of It. You can get a copy via the shop now link on our facebook page. Or you can get it through:

1) Jumia.com. Just click on this link http://www.jumia.com.ng/jumia-books-just-for-the-health-of-it-with-dr-ketch-179486.html and get a copy. You have the option of paying when the book is delivered to you or paying online. This service is available all over Nigeria.

2) Another option for those in Lagos is Laterna Bookshop on 13, Oko-Awo Close, Off Adetokunbo Ademola Street,. Victoria Island.

3) If you’re outside the country, please visit Amazon through this link http://www.amazon.com/Just-Health-Ketch-Pregnancy-Parenting/dp/9789398026/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426246647&sr=1-1&keywords=just+for+the+health+of+it+with+dr+ketch+olalere+nkechi

Remember that this book is a great Christmas, Baby Shower and Bridal Shower gift for anybody 😀

Have a great day, y’all 😀

December 1 every year is marked as World AIDS day. On this day, attention is drawn to this disease and there is focus on roles that different groups can play to make a difference. For this year, the theme was ‘Getting To Zero’…Zero new HIV infection, zero stigmatization/discrimination, zero AIDS related deaths.

We presume that everyone understands what HIV means….but maybe, that’s not particularly true 😀 HIV means Human Immunodeficiency Virus and is the virus that causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. This virus damages a person’s immune system and messes with their ability to handle infections they are confronted with on a daily basis. It may exist in a person and not cause symptoms for up to 10 years.

This infection can be spread through sexual contact with an infected person, sharing sharps (sharp objects and needles with infected person), blood transfusion or vertical transmission from mother to child during childbirth.

The first phase of the infection might actually seem like the flu or a cold with symptoms like fever, headache, sore throat, muscle aches and pains, swollen lymph nodes on the neck etc. The symptoms that people generally associate with HIV/AIDS like diarrhea, weight loss, fever, oral thrush etc actually occur in the later phase of the disease.

Treatment of the HIV infection is with a combination of drugs which affect the virus in various ways. For people who already have HIV/AIDS, it is important to eat healthy and avoid infections at all costs because of the depressed immunity. This means that immunizations should be taken as and when due, be careful with domestic pets (as some parasites found on them can cause significant infections in HIV positive patients), watch out for food-borne infections (by avoiding unpasteurized dairy products, raw meats and fish etc)

Prevention is focused on preventing sexual transmission (Abstaining from sex, Being faithful to an equally faithful partner and using Condoms), ensuring that blood to be used is properly screened, not sharing sharps with other people etc This speaks to Zero New Infections.

It is important that we show love to people who are already infected. A lot of people pass judgment on people once it is said they are HIV positive because of the general belief that this is only spread through sexual contact. Remember that it can also be passed on through other means and everyone with an illness/ailment deserves our love and support. This speaks to Zero Discrimination.

For related posts, please click on the following:

Daily Health Tips: What Are The First Symptoms Of HiV/AIDS?

Daily Health Tips: Should I Marry My Boyfriend Who I Just Realized Is HIV Positive?

Daily Health Tips: How Can I Prevent My Unborn Baby From Becoming Infected With HIV?

Daily Health Tips: Can I Get HIV From Oral Sex?

Have a great day everyone 😀

Q: Good morning Doc. Please what can be the cause of pregnant woman urinating frequently? (4 months)

A: Hi dear, thanks for writing in. Congratulations on your pregnancy and from your question, it does sound like it’s the first one.

There are quite a number of symptoms and signs of pregnancy and one of those symptoms is urinating frequently.
The simple reason is because the growing baby in the uterus puts pressure on the bladder causing one to want to urinate 😀 Imagine someone just pressing your bladder, even if from the outside! The inevitable will happen….

Other signs and symptoms of pregnancy include:
• Breast tenderness
• Vaginal discharge
• Heart burn and constipation
• Tiredness
• Food cravings
• Morning sickness etc.

It is important, however, to look out for the red flags of pregnancy like bleeding, abdominal pain, severe dizziness etc These need to be checked out by an obstetrician.

For more on this subject, please click on:
chatwithdrketch.com/2013/10/26/baby-in-the-tummy-its-all-up-to-mummy-is-it/

Have a good night, y’all 😀

Q: Please Doctor, can a breast feeding mom take coffee ? Thanks

A: Coffee and other foods and drinks that contain caffeine should, definitely be avoided when breastfeeding as much as possible. Caffeine in coffee energy drinks, some soft drinks etc This makes the baby irritable and by extension, makes sleep difficult for the baby.

Other foods to avoid or limit their consumption while breast feeding:

Alcohol: This should be avoided at all costs.

Cigarette (yeah, yeah, I know it’s not food) should also be avoided as it reduces the production of breast milk.

If baby reacts to what the mother ate, efforts should be made to pinpoint what the mother ate before the incident started and then eliminating that from the diet to see if the diarrhea or allergy stops.

Make sure that you eat well: lots of fruits and vegetables and complex carbohydrates. Cut out the junk which will not help you achieve your weight loss goals and in addition have empty calories. And drink sufficient fluids daily.

Be careful before taking any drug as most find their way into your baby.

Have a great night, everyone 😀

Q: Good day, ma’am. Please can abstinence (not having sex and masrurbation) cause prostate cancer in a man?

A: Well, some researches have suggested a link between sexual abstinence and prostate cancer but there is no conclusive evidence on this.

For more on prostate cancer and masturbation, please click on the following:
http://www.chatwithdrketch.com/2014/06/16/daily-health-tips-more-on-the-prostate-gland/

http://www.chatwithdrketch.com/2014/06/15/daily-health-tips-prostate-enlargement/

http://www.chatwithdrketch.com/2015/03/19/daily-health-tips-masturbation/

Have a great night, people 😀

Q: Good pm Dr, please how can my wife reduce her tummy and weight before our wedding? Though she is not pregnant.

A: 😀 Thanks for writing in. Immediately I read your question, I remembered a similar question from someone else, a lady this time, who had wanted to know the same thing about her future husband. Below, is the response I gave her. It should work for you too! 😀 I reproduce her question and my response.

Q: Good afternoon Ma’am. My fiancee is fat and I’m not comfortable with it. Also, our traditional marriage is due this December. Can you prescribe a diet or drug for him to slim down? I will surely appreciate it if you respond to my message. And also I watched your programme on Silverbird yesterday about proteins. Ma’am instead of wheat and egusi soup can one eat ground oats and egusi…which one is better?

A: Now, this certainly sounds like a woman who knows what she wants and is not afraid to say so 😀 So, fiancé dear, you’d better watch out and do something about that weight fast! 😀

Okay, more seriously…have you shared your concerns with him? Did he recently start adding weight or has he been like that all along? I’m not asking to pass judgement really….because there’s no law against changing your mind about what you like or don’t like 🙂 But perhaps, if you shared your concern with him, he would want to do something about this. He needs to understand that this is something very important to you and your future life together

To practical solutions, there’s no magic wand tablet that makes it all go away. Hmmm, that’s not really true, so I’ll re – phrase. There are a number of take-a-tablet-daily-for-10-days-and-you’ll-lose-all-that-weight-in-the-same-period tablets and fad diets, but what these tablets and diets do is that they make you lose a lot a lot of water weight, which makes you feel like you’re losing weight and then once you go off the tabs or fad diet, you pile it all on again. So, the only solution I proffer is plain hard work.

Now, this is where you come in. You can get your fiancee to live healthier in a fun way. You can register both of you for a dance class. It’s a fun way of bonding with him while losing oodles of calories. You can also take evening walks daily when he comes visiting and when you’re not together, encourage him to do same. Visit his house and make things a bit more inaccessible to encourage him to move eg maybe move the water dispenser to a farther point (so he has to walk further to get water) etc. Make him understand the importance of activity, at least, 30 minutes everyday.

For food, remember the architecture of a healthy plate? Half of It should be filled with fruits and veggies, a quarter with complex carbs like oatmeal, sweet potatoes, local rice etc and the last quarter filled with protein (preferably white protein like chicken and fish). Get him to buy healthier snacks to keep around the house for when he wants to snack, work with him on trying out healthier methods of cooking etc

More importantly, reassure him of your love and the fact that you want to grow old with him. You want him to live long enough to see your children (teach them to play soccer, walk them down the aisle when they are getting married etc), your grandchildren and indeed, great grandchildren:D

For more on weight loss, please click on the links below:

https://chatwithdrketch.com/2014/04/28/daily-health-tips-what-drugs-can-help-me-burn-fat/

https://chatwithdrketch.com/2013/11/30/daily-health-tip-weight-loss-facts-and-fiction/

https://chatwithdrketch.com/2014/08/25/daily-health-tips-can-i-lose-weight-by-taking-hot-drink-and-lemon/

I’m sure it will all work out. Congratulations in advance 😀

And yes, you can have oatmeal and Egusi…awesome combination 🙂

Good night, y’all 😀

Q: Please, can I drink aloe vera and lime to lose weight?

A: Aloe vera is great with many health benefits. But useful for weight loss in combination with lime? It sounds like one of those fad diets I have heard about. This is a variation of another question I have been asked before…

Q: Good morning Doc, please what is the best solution for weight loss? Is hot drink and lime a good idea to achieve a weight loss?

A: Hmmm! What did you have in mind? Taking the hot drink (alcoholic spirit) alone or in combination with the lime? 😀 Now, you have to forgive me, but I’m always amused at the fact that we think that there are short cuts to these stuff. Unfortunately, losing weight is pure hard work: sweating and grunting.

Alcohol’s health benefit is usually touted in the area of heart health where moderate alcohol consumption is thought to provide some benefits to the heart. Moderation is described as one drink of alcoholic beverage per day for women and also for men 65 years and older and two drinks for men younger than 65 years. However, even these moderate servings of alcohol are also associated with cancers and other disease conditions. Indeed, the beneficial effects of this moderate alcohol on the heart can be reproduced by paying attention to diet and exercising at least 150 minutes per week.
In addition, alcohol contains empty calories which will definitely mess up anyone’s weight loss plan and when people drink alcohol, they lose their inhibitions and may completely forgo their diet plan and eat all sorts 😀

Lemon on the other hand is thought to have some cleansing properties and also helps whiten the teeth. It is full of vitamins and anti-oxidants that help fight disease. Too much of this can lead to erosion of the enamel of the teeth (leaching away of the top coating of the teeth).

Remember that any diet that leads to undue restrictions by completely eliminating certain food groups or restricting diets to liquids only may not only be a health hazard but is also not sustainable. Sustainable diet plans focus on making sure you get the right quantity of foods from each food group to nourish your body.

For more of what to do to lose weight, Get details from the book, Just For The Health Of It. You can get a copy via the shop now link on our facebook page. Or you can get it through:

1) Jumia.com. Just click on this link http://www.jumia.com.ng/jumia-books-just-for-the-health-of-it-with-dr-ketch-179486.html and get a copy. You have the option of paying when the book is delivered to you or paying online. This service is available all over Nigeria.

2) Another option for those in Lagos is Laterna Bookshop on 13, Oko-Awo Close, Off Adetokunbo Ademola Street,. Victoria Island.

3) If you’re outside the country, please visit Amazon through this linkhttp://www.amazon.com/Just-Health-Ketch-Pregnancy-Parenting/dp/9789398026/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426246647&sr=1-1&keywords=just+for+the+health+of+it+with+dr+ketch+olalere+nkechi

For those in Abuja and environs, please call 07030739403 or pick it up at No 5 Bricks Market, Dawaki 11 Market, Dawaki extension.

For those in Awka, please call 08189944090.

Remember that this book is a great gift for anyone who wishes to live and eat healthy, lose weight, get ready for pregnancy and parenting. Buy copies for bridal showers, baby showers, Christmas gifts etc. It’s a gift that keeps on giving 😀

As we count down to the festive season, here are ways you can feed your sweet tooth and still be healthy 😀

Q: I want to stop sugar because I’m addicted. What can I do doctor?

A: Thanks for writing in. Don’t we all struggle with this???
I’ll reproduce here a post I had made on healthier alternatives/substitutes to foods we generally love which may not be so healthy. This includes sugary foods and those loaded with bad fats. Enjoy…

First, commit to reading labels in supermarkets. For all the foods that you will buy from shops, read the labels and be sure that they contain wholesome nutrients. Look out especially for trans fats, sugars, salt and lack of fiber. Avoid foods that have them…as much as you can!

Try these substitutions:
Substitute white rice with local rice like Ofada, Abakaliki rice or brown rice etc

While shopping for pasta (eg spaghetti, macaroni or the like), look out for whole grain pasta. It will be written on the pack.

Instead of buying white bread, go for whole wheat bread.,,noting that even wheat bread has a significant amount of salt. So, if you casn lay off bread once in a while, please do 😀

Remember that just because it’s brown, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s whole wheat. Ask the grocer/baker/whoever you’re buying from.

If you need a sugar fix, don’t get it from a pack of sugar-filled fruit juice, juice your own fruits or opt for fruit slices

You know those sugar filled cereals that tell you that it’s just honey and whatever else, read the pack, you’ll see how much sugar is in them…plus of course, the honey. Substitute with oatmeal or other whole grain cereals. If you hate oats, try this recipe I learnt while shooting my half hour show.

Overnight oats
Put some oats in a bowl, add some milk and unsweetened yoghurt. Cover with cling film and leave in the fridge overnight. In the morning, add some fruit slices (I like apple and banana slices), add a sprinkle of cinnamon and if you want a little bit more ‘sugar’, add a couple of raisins/currants/dried fruit. Mix it all up…tastes fabulous! 😀

Stay off soft drinks/soda as much as you can. Substitute with water 😀 or sparkling water which has some drops of lemon in it or you can do same with still (regular) water.

Instead of red meat, go for chicken and fish. And take off the chicken skin.

Substitute butter for cooking with healthier oils like Olive oil.

Substitute butter on bread slices with healthier spreads like peanut butter or even mashed avocado pear.

Try shopping for reduced fat mayonnaise and salad dressings to take the place of the regular goods. You could also try balsamic vinegar as a dressing for salad.

In recipes that need sugar, you can significantly reduce sugar to be used by using some cinnamon, nutmeg or vanilla.

Blend up some fruits and add them to low fat, sugar-free yoghurt…and dare I say, use that as a substitute for ice cream??? 😀

Reduce salt intake by using other herbs and spices like ginger, garlic etc

Replace pounded yam with oat meal and serve up different varieties of vegetable soups.

Remember that while making your stew, the oil should not be visible on top of the stew when you’re done cooking. If we can see it, it’s too much!

Have a great evening, people 😀